Favorite Games of 2010

Yes, I know its 2011. Yes, I know its February. Yes, I know its late. However, I just “finished” Mass Effect 2 and thought I’d share my favorite games of 2010.

So as I said, I finally “finished” Mass Effect 2. I gotta give kudos to Bioware for the awesome job they did with that game. The re-playability of this game is huge and realistically, I could keep playing it for about 200 more hours at this point. However, with my recent acquisitions of Steam games, college life and a wish to change the pace of my gaming, I laid down the hammer on my goals. Which basically was to complete 2 characters the way I wanted to. Technically, due to some mistakes, I made 3 characters. But one was redone the way I wanted to in preparation for Mass Effect 3. Still, all has been fun. I will be shelving the game until the next DLC is released from Bioware in several months and I might create a third actual character. Though its uncertain at this point what I’ll be doing with Mass Effect 2. I also want to take a long enough break to be really pumped for the next sequel to this trilogy.

But I digress, this post wasn’t about the love I have for Mass Effect 2, but rather my favorite PC and iPhone games of 2010. So here goes:

1) Mass Effect 2. Yeah, big shocker right? But hands down Mass Effect 2 was my favorite game of 2010 and I have big expectations that ME3 and hope that it will be my favorite game of 2011. After playing a lot more hours than I care to think about in this game, this game is truly a masterpiece. It begs the question of how ME3 will be able to do just as well if not better than this game, but time will tell. From the amazing visuals, to a deep and enriched universe to a fantastic story, Mass Effect 2 really is the games we should be getting now. Characters are also impressive. Its just a flawless game (even with the few flaws it has) and I can’t say more about it. If you love a good story in Space with great action and great characters, get this game.

2) Ai War: Fleet Command. Not a real big shocker if you know me, but Arcen Game’s flagship title was really great for me to play this year. With a great base to its gameplay, the game really started to take some interesting changes, completely changing the core of what it was and presenting us a RTS game like no other on the market. With its newest expansion this year which also brought about an entire almost rewrite of the game from its graphics engine to its ship balance, it is well on its way to being my favorite game of 2011 and perhaps my favorite game of all time. Who knows though. Again, if you have not gotten this game this year, you should get it. Its an RTS game with thousands of ships under your command. You must defeat a very intelligent and powerful AI. A huge expansive universe with a lot of varieties in how you can play and strategically think. And it is entirely possible for the AI to defeat you without cheating. For an Indie-developer, this game just hits all the right buttons and I predict I’ll be playing much more of this game. After playing 121 hours, I see myself playing about 200+ more. o_o. Well worth the money. 🙂 Really though, this game would be on the top of my list had Mass Effect 2 and its DLC not been so awesome. I almost consider these games tied.

3) Tidalis. Another one from Arcen Games, this puzzle game took me deeply by surprise as I’m not a big fan of the puzzle genre. With lots of potential of things to do and a bunch of content, this game will be on my machine for a long time.

4) Angry Birds. This has been a fun game, but not quite as fun as the rest of the games. What can I really say more about this game that you don’t already know?

5) Words with Friends. This is a bit of a surprising one for me, because I don’t like scrabble, but I’ve had quite a bit of fun playing it with friends on my own terms. Since I’ve played this, I’ve become a better scrabble player. Education + Fun = Win. 🙂

6) Plants VS Zombies. I had to put at least one “turret defense” game on my list and this one has to be it. A surprisingly good game from Capcom it has good graphics and good, balanced game-play. I’d say its major downside is lack of re-playability, as it is rather dull once you play past a certain point. Otherwise, both the iOS and PC versions are good fun.

7) Cut The Rope. This physics-based puzzle game has been fairly enjoyable. While it is challenging, it lacks both re-playability and a lot of content. Still, the good graphics and quirky yet cute monster make the game quite fun.

Honorable Mention) Eve Online. I had to include one MMO despite withdrawing from the genre entirely and this is the one to mention. With its own story and universe and rules that it operates under, Eve was certainly a lot of fun to play, despite what all happened. Good job CCP 🙂

Runner Up) We Rule. Despite my fallout on this game, I still have to credit this game for the many hours I spent building up my kingdom and enjoying it. While I believe that Ngmoco has lost its touch to create worthwhile software and GameCenter from Apple being more functional and open than Plus+, We Rule was a fun distraction this year. But with an out-of-date social experience that is incredibly buggy and lackluster combined with a game that is buggy, crashy and drains my iPhone battery like no tomorrow, it simply no longer deserves its place on my iPhone. The game itself has gotten really pricy now and the content is not very medieval, taking away from what should be a medieval experience. I truly hope someone tries to challenge this market again with something similar, as I am currently looking for a game like We Rule.

That is all I have to say. I’ve had a lot of fun this year, but realized towards the end that my selection of games was very limited so with the Steam sales, I expanded my genres. This year should be a very different experience.

5 Comments:

I just noticed, I’m subscribed to game reviews. Anyhow, I agree with your selection, despite not having been able to see or play much of anything. Also, you make me envious because I don’t have a computer that can handle most computer games, and my iPod touch was stolen.

However, I should be getting another iPod touch eventually, so these reviews will become most helpful. Speaking which of, what generation is your iPhone?

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About A Paladin & Schedule

Welcome to my Gaming Review website. I've been creating content on a regular basis for over six years now but there's been a change. I'm currently on hiatus while I'm employed at a different job because I can't do that job and do this blog. There's no way I can do both and remain unbiased. I do not have a return ETA at this time but I thank everyone for their support over the years. It means a lot.